2. THE PERSONS SELECTED. 11 As human sacrifices, like all other offerings, were prized in proportion to the self-denial which they involved, self-immolation was regarded as the highest and most glorious offering, since man cannot manifest his earnestness and religious devotion more strikingly than by delivering up his own life to move the will of the gods. In the war of the seven Argives against Thebes under the leadership of Polyneices, Teiresias or the Delphic oracle prophesied the victory to the Thebans if Menoeceus, the chaste son of Creon, would sacrifice himself for the welfare of the country to Mars incensed on account of the slaughter of the sacred dragon by Cadmus; and Menoeceus accordingly killed himself outside the gates of the town 10 When the Athenians under king Theseus waged war against the Peloponnesians under Eurystheus because they refused to deliver up the children of Hercules, they received from the oracle the assurance of conquest if one of the hero's offspring devoted himself to Demeter; upon which Macaria the daughter of Hercules and Deianira offered herself spontaneously. The two Greeks, who at the purification of Athens by Epimenides gave themselves up as expiatory offerings, were revered as the rescuers of the city. 12 Even the death of Leonidas at Thermopylae was later conceived as a spontaneous sacrifice for the safety of Greece in consequence of a divine oracle. 13 The Decii 14 and M. Curtius 15 were for their pious heroism glorified as the saviours of their country. When in a battle of the Carthaginians against the Syracusans, the victory seemed to incline to the enemy, Hamilcar threw himself into the flames to propitiate the gods. 16 Antinous, the page of the emperor Hadrian, has made his memory famous by precipitating himself into the Nile, because he believed that his death would secure the success of his master's schemes. 17 In all parts of India, at the processions of the image of Juggernauth, enthusiasts threw themselves under the colossal chariot which carried the god, to be crushed by the ponderous wheels, either in fulfilment of a vow, or to appease the deity; and though this practice may not be of very early origin, since it is neither mentioned by ancient writers nor later travellers, 18 it obtains to this day, at Orissa, Serampore, and 9 Comp. Philo, De Vict. 13, xquaτων γὰρ τὸ μέγιστον αὐτός τίς ἐστιν αὐτῷ οἱ παραχωρεῖ καὶ ἐξίσταται. 19 Eurip. Phoen. 898-952; Apollod. III. vi. 7; Pausan. IX. xxv. 1; comp. IX. xvii. 1; Stat. Theb. X. 756 sqq. 11 Eurip. Heraclid. 408—607, esp. 531 (ἑκοῦσα κοὐκ ἀκοῦσα), 547-551; Paus. I. xxxii. 6; Plut. Pelop. 21. 12 See supra p. 328. 13 Plut. Pelop. 21; comp. Herod. VII. 223, 224. 14 See supra p. 331. 15 Liv. VII. 6 (manum nunc in coelum, nunc in patentes terrae hiatus ad deos manes porrigentem se devovisse). 16 Herod. VII. 167. 17 Dion Cass. LXIX. 11; Spartian. Hadrian. c. 14. 18 Comp. Bohlen, Alt. Ind. I. 275. Ꮓ elsewhere, under the very eyes of the British authorities, and it is so difficult to eradicate chiefly on account of the prevailing conviction that the victim, had he even committed the foulest crime, becomes spotless, yea is changed into the god Shiva himself, and through many ages enjoys divine bliss and honour. An eye-witness, giving an account of the festival which took place at Serampore on the 6th of July 1864, describes the chariot as a vast house of wood seventy feet high and twenty square, rising tier above tier to the idol's throne, and loaded at every stage with Brahmins and gigantic figures. The chariot "crushed out a life with every revolution of its hideous wheels, covered as they were with human flesh and gore... The Brahmins looked down from the car upon the poor wretches with perfect unconcern, and were even signalling the crowd to pull again." The voluntary death of the Hindoo wives on the demise of their husbands, has above been commented upon. Among the old Prussians, the custom prevailed that the high-priest, having attained a certain age, burnt himself for the weal of the people.* A different character must be ascribed to the instances of self-destruction sanctioned by the tenets of the stoics, when life seemed to be a burden or a disgrace, or by the doctrines of the Hindoo sages, who, although denouncing suicide as a rule, deem it a most meritorious act to end an ignoble life of disease or decrepitude by the sacred and purifying flames or waves which secure to the sufferer immediate admission into heaven: it suffices to allude to the story of Cabanus (originally Sphinas, the happy), the Indian friend of Alexander the Great, and to that of Zarmanochegas (that is, the holy) of Barygaza, who lived at Athens in the time of Augustus; and, in the year 166 of the present era, the convert Peregrinus followed their example. In fact, pious Christians believed martyrdom to be the noblest form of sacrifice. This was the opinion of Origen; its harmony with the 1 Comp. Asiat. Res. V. 374, 380; M. N. Schmidth, De Sacrificiis religionis Indo-Brahmanicae, pp. 19, 20. 2 In the Times. 3 See also the fine description of Southey, in Curse of Kehama, "A thousand pilgrims strain" etc. 4 Mone, Geschichte des nord. Heidenth., I. 82, 92. 5 Lucian, De Morte Peregrini, c. 25; Lucan, Phars. III. 240-243 (pro! quanta est gloria genti Injecisse manum fatis etc.); Joseph. Bell. Jud. VII. viii. 7 (Αρ' οὖν οὐκ αιδούμεθα χεῖρον Ἰνδῶν φρονοῦντες, καὶ διὰ τὴς ἑαυτῶν ἀτολ μias xt.); Strabo, XV. i. 73 p. 720; comp. Bohlen, Alt. Ind. I. 287-290. 6 Arrian, VII. 3; Strabo, XV. i. 4, 64-68; Diod. Sic. XVII. 107; Plut. Alex. 65; Aeliun. Var. Hist. V. 6 (örɛ ἐβουλήθη ἀπολῦσαι αὐτὸν ἐκ τῶν τοῦ σώματος δεσμών). 7 Strabo, XV. i. 73, p. 720, where the epitaph on his grave is thus stated, Ζαρμανοχηγὰς Ινδὸς ἀπὸ Βαργόσης κατὰ τὰ πάτρια Ινδῶν ἔθη ἑαυτὸν ἀπαθανατίσας κεῖται. 8 See Lucian, 1. c. 21—36. 9 Comp. p. 330; K. Bähr, Lehre der Kirche vom Tode Jesu, pp. 113 sqq. spirit of Christianity is proved by the example of Jesus himself; 10 and a modern theologian writes, "He who, under circumstances, cannot become a martyr, thereby shows that his whole worship has been hollow and empty, and that he was never in earnest with regard to the holocaust so strongly demanded by the Law of God. Whoever has been in earnest, sees in martyrdom nothing but the manifestation of a principle which had ever lived within him."11 Next to self-immolation the most valued sacrifice was that of the dearest relation. 12 Therefore, the Phoenicians and all those who adopted their religious doctrines and rites, burnt their children to Moloch, a custom which prevailed to an almost incredible extent, and which took deep root among the Hebrews also. 13 All children so sacrificed were naturally required to be healthy and well-formed; 14 but the offering was regarded particularly praiseworthy if the child was the firstborn or the only son of his parents. 15 Priests and pious people were next regarded as highly acceptable victims. "Chariclea", says Heliodorus, "was from the beginning reserved to the gods on account of her unsurpassed excellence." 16 Those who had devoted themselves to certain deities, could at any time be killed in honour of them, because by death their souls were supposed to be raised at once to the gods, and to be lifted into heaven, their true abodes. 17 In the service of Ashtarte, the immolation of priests was preserved up to the time of the Christian era; and even in the age of Strabo, an attendant of the temple near Iberia, in the Scythian country of Albania, was annually seized by a priest, bound with sacred fetters, and maintained sumptuously, to be sacrificed in honour of the goddess at the expiration of the year. 18 The chief priest of Diana Taurica or Ari10 See Sect. XIX; comp. esp. Philipp. II. 17; 2 Tim. IV. 6; Ephes. V. 2. 11 Hengstenberg, Opfer, pp. 34, 35. 12 "E9vov tõv qıåtátow tivá, Porph. Abst. II. 56; Euseb. Praep. Ev. IV. 16 (ὡς καὶ τοῖς τῶν φιλτάτων αἵμασι . . . ἱλεοῦσθαι νομίζειν τὰς μιαιφόνους δυνάμεις κτλ.). 13 See Sectt. XXII. XXIII. 14 Oros. Adv. Pagan. Hist. IV. 6, puras animo et incorruptas offerri hostias mos est; comp. Curt. IV. 3 (15, ingenuus puer). 15 Comp. ἀπαρχαὶ ἀνθρώπων, the firstlings of men, presented by the Eretrians and Magnetians to Apollo whom they revered as the bestower of all fruits, as the paternal, beneficent god, and the patron of births (Plut. Pyth. orac. 16; comp. Eurip. Phoen. 203, ἀκροθίνια Λοξίᾳ ; Iph. Taur. 459); Porphyr. De Abst. II. 46; Euseb. Praep. Εν. Ι. x. 36 (ὑιὸν μονογενῆ ... ὃν διὰ τοῦτο Ἰεούδ — i. e. 77 ἐκάλουν; comp. Gen. XXII. 2, 7N NJP 778); In laud. Constant. c. 13 (Κρόνῳ γὰρ Φοίνικες καθ ̓ ἕκαστον ἔτος ἔθυον τὰ ἀγαπητὰ καὶ μονογενῆ τῶν τέκνων); Diod. Sic. XX. 14 (τῶν ὑιῶν Tovs xgatioτovs); see also 2 Ki. III. 26, 27 (supra p. 332). 16 Heliod. Χ. 9 (θεοῖς ... διὰ τὸ ὑπερβάλλον τῆς φύσεως ἀρχῆθεν φυλαττομένην). 17 Macrob. Saturn. III. 7. 18 Strab. XI. iv. 7, p. 503. 2 3 cina in Latium was commonly slain by his successor's own hands.1 On important occasions, the Franks cast lots among themselves to decide who was to die as a sacrifice, and the person so marked out was regarded as the special favourite of the gods. In Meroe it was customary for the king to be killed as a sacrifice when the priests deemed it expedient or pretended to have been directed by an oracle; which usage was maintained up to the third century before Christ, when the Ethiopian king Ergamenes, having been summoned for a similar sacrifice, killed the priests and abolished the custom. As chastity was regarded a chief condition of holiness, virgins and unstained youths were, in many instances, esteemed as victims, especially in honour of maiden goddesses, as Minerva and Diana; the former deity received annually a virgin on her altar at Laodicea. Pelopidas was commanded, by a vision in a dream, to offer a fair virgin; the Ethiopians sacrificed to Helios and Selene none but chaste persons, whose innocence was tested by their being placed on a sacred grate (éozúpu) which, if they were not spotless, was supposed to burn off their feet." 8 7 5 Anxious to show that success in great or dangerous enterprises was attributed to the favour of the gods, most nations, both at the commencement of a military expedition and after its happy conclusion. sacrificed captives of war, in the one case for supplication, in the other for grateful acknowledgment, which custom was continued up to a very late period. For this purpose the first prisoners captured were deemed most desirable, as among the Ethiopians, whenever they triumphed over foreign enemies, 10 among the Thulitae or Scandinavians, 11 and occasionally among the Persians. 12 Particularly grateful also were captives of high rank, such as chiefs and generals, who, among the old Prussians and others, were burnt on a funeral pile together with their arms and horses. In other cases, supplication or gratitude was manifested by the multitude of victims. The Scythians sacrificed one of every hundred prisoners; 13 the Argivi, after the conquest of Mycenae, devoted every tenth inhabitant to the gods; the Tarquinians (in B. C. 355) slaughtered 307 captive Romans, 15 and the Mexicans as many of the Spanish in 14 1 Strab. V. iii. 12, p. 239; comp. Pausan. II. xxvii. 4; Hygin. Fab. 261; Sueton. Calig. 35; Ovid, Fast. III. 260. 2 Mone, l. c. p. 136. 3 Diod. Sic. III. 6. See supra p. 327. 5 See, however, infra. Heliod. X. 7. 7 Comp. Ovid, Fast. I. 336 (Hostibus a domitis hostia nomen habel); see supra pp. 330–332. s Comp. Tertull, Adv. Gnost. 7; Just. 14 Diod. Sic. XI. 65. vaders as they were able to seize. It is noteworthy that, in most cases, sacrifices of captives were employed as a means of divination and of ascertaining the issue of the war, as is related of the Lusitanians, the Britons, and the inhabitants of Mona (or Anglesey), the Cimbri, the Prussians, and others. 16 The custom of sacrificing prisoners of war probably gave rise, among many tribes, to the idea of killing in honour of the gods strangers rather than natives; for foreigners and enemies were extensively held to be equivalent terms. 17 The sacrifice of shipwrecked strangers by the Scythians in Tauris at the shrine of Diana, has become celebrated by the descriptions of historians and poets. 1s Foreigners were offered by the Hindoos, 19 by the Egyptians in honour of Typhon, 20 by the Ethiopians, who are said to have periodically seized two strangers to slaughter them for the welfare of the community, 21 and frequently by the old Germans. 22 From this point it is not difficult to trace 18 3. THE GRADUAL ABOLITION OF HUMAN SACRIFICES. For when men accustomed themselves to consider strangers as oblations pleasing to the gods, they imperceptibly strove to substitute them for their own countrymen and relatives. They thus satisfied their deepest feelings of religion by presenting a human sacrifice, and yet avoided the tormenting conflict into which such sacrifice might bring them with their natural sympathies. But even this first step was not achieved without a severe struggle. It was by men of a fanatic or enthusiastic creed regarded as a cowardly evasion of the most sacred of religious duties. As the Phoenicians and those who adopted their faith believed their eldest sons rightfully to belong to Moloch, the childless among them, to evince their holy zeal, were from early times wont to buy the sons of poor persons and to present them to the god; the mother was required to be present at the sacrifice; but if she shed a tear or uttered a sigh, she lost the purchase money, without saving her offspring. 23 Such precedents induced rich parents secretly to purchase boys and to sacrifice them as their own. 24 The detestable practice seems, in later times, to have obtained to a considerable extent. Therefore, when the Carthaginians were defeated by Agathocles, they supposed that the disaster 16 See supra, pp. 332, 333; comp. Strabo, Ill. iii. 7, p. 154. 17 Comp. Plut. Marc. 3. 15 Comp. Eurip. Iph. Taur. 28, 29; Ovid, Trist. IV. iv. 63, 64; Pont. III. ii. 65 sqq.; Juven. XV. 116 sqq.; Plin. H. N. VII. 2; Lucian, De Sacrif. 13; etc. 19 Asiat. Research. V. p. 386. 21 Diod. Sic. II. 55; see, however, |